Rob Ninkovich: Every team has the Patriots circled on their schedule

Posted by Michael David Smith on July 27, 2017, 8:33 AM EST

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Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich said he and his teammates don’t give anyone any bulletin board material, because their mere presence on the schedule is all that’s needed on the next opponent’s bulletin board.

Ninkovich said on PFT Live that he thinks every team in the NFL looks ahead to facing the Patriots, which means they’re never going to get a team on an off day.

“The Patriots — our logo is bulletin board material. Anyone that’s playing the Patriots, they have us circled on their schedule,” Ninkovich said. “So every week we’re getting everyone’s best shot.”

One player who hasn’t made any secret of the fact that he already has those games against the Patriots circled on his schedule is Dolphins receiver Jarvis Landry, who said this offseason that he’s expecting to sweep the Patriots this year.

“We’ll see what happens when we play,” Ninkovich said.

That’s about as much of a bulletin-board comment as a Patriot will make.

I sometimes wonder how some teams would do if they treated every game like they are playing the Patriots. It’s amazing to me to see an otherwise terrible team play an exceptional game and I always think it is sad when they treat their regular season Sunday as the Super Bowl because of the Patriots.

I guess any team that plays the Patriots looks at it as “THEIR” personal Super Bowl since they know that’s probably as close as they will get to playing in one…..Pats are the measuring stick for all teams that play them just to get a feel on where they are in comparison & what they need to improve on……
Awesome watching this TEAM play…it’s been a heck of a ride for sure….. I do feel truly blessed!!!
Go Pats!!!!!

Apparently, all the PFT crybaby, Patriot hater trolls have every article written about the Patriots at the top of their agendas, too. Those whiners certainly never miss an opportunity to spew forth their fictitious bile.

Same quotes every year from different players like robots. Which is good for the organization and never give other teams bulletin board material but we don’t need an update every time a patriot player says something humble.

Yes, they all have it circled as a certain loss. Get set for the perfect season, 19 – 0 and immortality as the greatest team of all time.
Belichick and Brady understand what is needed to achieve perfection. Just kiss the rings.

But what about Aaron Rodgers the cheater and his over-inflated footballs? Or are 31 other teams allowed to ‘cheat’ and ‘practice gamesmanship’ but with the Patriots it becomes a federal case? Goodell must resign NOW for his sting operation of the Patriots.

“I can’t wait until the Pats lose their first game and Patriot world thinks the sky is falling. It going to be a beautiful thing”

The Pats lose a few games every year and its never the Pats fans who act like that. Its always people like you who jump up and down gigglig like a drunken 6 year old believing the occasional loss means “the end of the Pats”

How do you quantify that? It can’t be for sticking with the team during hard times, certainly. It must be something like “by being fans of the team when it wins”.

I mean seriously how do you know which ones are great patriot fans and which ones are front runners who root for whatever team wins? That they managed to hang on for that one Matt Cassel year?

Back int he 70s and 80s Patriots fans had their share of mutual grief to overcome, the Sugar Robinson roughing call in ’76, the year the owner fired the coach right before the final game of the season which would have won the division, the superbowl vs the 85 Bears, even the Parcells superbowl. In those years you knew which ones were hard core. Nowadays its like rooting for the Globetrotters. Not really the fault of any actual die-hard fans of the team, but not much to put on your resume either. I guess if you were with them all that time, kudos, otherwise not saying much.

I guess all you got to go on is the near ubiquitous hatred and belief they are cheaters, but that’s not the same kind of thing.

The cheating comments are so old, and low fruit picking lazy. The other teams should try it if it is so easy and undetectable (as the pats were never caught by the NFL, as they
only responded to tattling and accusations)

The Pats lose a few games every year and its never the Pats fans who act like that. Its always people like you who jump up and down gigglig like a drunken 6 year old believing the occasional loss means “the end of the Pats”

Hows that worked out for you during the last 16 years?

Your short term memory sucks….even for a biased hypocritical homer. A few years back they lost a couple early games and you homers were ready to lose your minds with bunched pantries over your heads……don’t make me laugh with that crap…..what a liar. Must be a Trumpanzee.

Pretty sad commentary. I’m a Pats fan and yet I find half the Patriot fan comments obnoxious and annoying. And then you have the miserable little baby trolls with their asterisks and “you cheat” whiny accusations.
Of course the Patriots take other teams best shots, that’s how it goes when you have been at or near the top of the league for the better part of two decades. If I were a fan of the Bucs or Raiders or any young team on the rise I would circle the game with the Pats. That’s the game where you can show your team can compete with the best. The same thing happened with the Pats back in 2001 when they played the Rams (defending SB champs) during the season. The Pats lost the game but it was close and they felt like they could compete with them.

harrisonhits2 says:
Jul 27, 2017 11:09 AM
“I can’t wait until the Pats lose their first game and Patriot world thinks the sky is falling. It going to be a beautiful thing”

The Pats lose a few games every year and its never the Pats fans who act like that. Its always people like you who jump up and down gigglig like a drunken 6 year old believing the occasional loss means “the end of the Pats”

Hows that worked out for you during the last 16 years?

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Remember when KC trounced the Pats a couple of years ago? Fans and pundits were proclaiming it “the end of Brady”……then he went on to beat Seattle in the SB…

Of course the Pats will lose some games. There are some good teams in the league that play the Pats tough. Seattle, Denver, KC, Miami and the Ravens to name a few…

dwoofer says:
Jul 27, 2017 10:39 AM
Yes, teams circle the Pats game. They check for bugs, eavesdropping equipment, hidden cams, missing playbooks, spies at practices……….yes, fore-warned is fore-armed
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…and how many bugs,eavesdropping equipment, hidden cams, missing playbooks, spies at practices have been found because of course they would have been punished for it. How many? Accusations don’t count. Evidence, please? How many of these were proven true?

Why is my comment worthy of being deleted? What rules have I violated?

Most teams in the AFC realize that the Conference runs through the Patriots so of course they have the Patriots circled on their schedule. Also, not many Pats fans that I know of think they will go undefeated this season. I would say 13-3 or 12-4 is more reasonable.

Garbage schedule.14-2 in their sleep. Drives non Pat fans nuts that they were dead to rights their last 2 Super Bowls and walked off champs. Funny thing, I was rooting hard against them against ATL then the super bowl party became lame, so I thought ‘this is a blowout, lets make it somewhat of a game…..’ Never once thinking They had the slightest chance to come back. Now I have to hear New England homers talk like it was a dominating victory. Please look your age this season Tommy!

I remember the KC game nightmare where we were destroyed on MNF. Week 4 of the 2014 season. Lost 41 to 14

I also remember being concerned at the loss but I definitely didn’t “lose it” or post much about it. It was week 4!!!

A loss is a loss. Sometimes you get your a$$ handed to you by another team. So what? Pack up and get prepared for the next game. We all know how that season ended, so what is all the BS about here?

I also recall the 2007 season and recall thinking there is no way they will not lose a Reg season game. You have to think that if maybe they lost a reg seasons game, they would have fared better in the SB. Monkey off the back and all.
It was a heart breaker but it wasn’t meant to be. Whoopdedo.

Quite well and it wasnt Pats fans flipping out it was the fans of other teams who pray every day for his retirement and media oeople looking for clicks

Ie the cacophony of fools who do cartwheels with each occasional Pats loss

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It was hilarious. I have never seen so many dumb sports fans that follow a sport before.

We have 15 years of a consistent pattern of excellence with the Pats, and somehow a MNF game @ KC with the town in a frenzy over the Royals in the World Series in October, somehow NE’s run was all done.

LOL

NE is good for 12 wins minimum every year, with this machine that is currently rolling.

aredsoxfan1 says:
Jul 27, 2017 12:43 PM
Pretty sad commentary. I’m a Pats fan and yet I find half the Patriot fan comments obnoxious and annoying. And then you have the miserable little baby trolls with their asterisks and “you cheat” whiny accusations.
Of course the Patriots take other teams best shots, that’s how it goes when you have been at or near the top of the league for the better part of two decades. If I were a fan of the Bucs or Raiders or any young team on the rise I would circle the game with the Pats. That’s the game where you can show your team can compete with the best. The same thing happened with the Pats back in 2001 when they played the Rams (defending SB champs) during the season. The Pats lost the game but it was close and they felt like they could compete with them.

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Dude, they started with their mental illness problems. Us throwing it back in their faces, is simply returning fire and defending ourselves.

They can suck it for all I care.

Projecting their mental illness to us on these boards is selfish and annoying.

jackedupboonie says:
Jul 27, 2017 1:56 PM
Garbage schedule.14-2 in their sleep. Drives non Pat fans nuts that they were dead to rights their last 2 Super Bowls and walked off champs. Funny thing, I was rooting hard against them against ATL then the super bowl party became lame, so I thought ‘this is a blowout, lets make it somewhat of a game…..’ Never once thinking They had the slightest chance to come back. Now I have to hear New England homers talk like it was a dominating victory. Please look your age this season Tommy!

I’ve always said that NE set standard from 2000/01 to present day, and as the other 31 teams have tried to keep up it hasn’t been easy.
You’d think we would’ve learned something by now, but
it’s all about this coaching staff & organization and how well they “read” players, there are no chronic “problem” players on this team, probably never will as long as Belichick is HC.
And you gotta love his “Next man UP” saying – say’s it ALL
in a nutshell!
I believe Adam Gase is doing a great job emulating what
the NE staff does – If your gonna BE the best , You gotta
BEAT the best!
Ninkovich is right because NE is the GOLD STANDARD !